So this is the first prompt that feel really American and a bit difficult to do for a Brit.. Christmas cookies aren’t really a big thing in the UK, but then as someone who really likes cooking/baking and does occasionally make cookies around the festive season, there is some wisdom I can share here.
The cookies I baked most recently, and a recipe I will most definitely be using again, was vanilla Chai tea cookies. They were lush. I had to bake for the weekly town youth workers meeting I went to and I fancied making something a little different for them, so I went with these, knowing they might be a little controversial, but they went down really well thankfully. I have since shared the recipe with my boss and she has baked them and is also a complete convert to drinking chai tea too. So all round a great success.
I found the recipe on a random site simply by googling whether I could use the contents of a chai tea bag to flavour biscuits, and other than a few tweeks, it worked really well and is so simple. I’ll include the recipe below showing where I changed things:
Chai Tea Cookies
Makes about 2 dozen cookies
1 cup all-purpose flour (plus a little extra added later on as the mix is pretty wet!)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup powdered sugar (You can do the whole mix with regular sugar)
1 tablespoon chai tea mix, from several chai tea bags (I used about 6)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup unsalted butter
In a food processor or small chopper, pulse the flour, sugar, powdered sugar, tea mix, and salt until the tea is pulverized and distributed throughout the dry ingredients. If desired, add the cardamom and cinnamon as well, which will give a more pronounced chai spice flavor to the cookies.
Add the vanilla and butter. Pulse together just until a rough dough is formed. Scrape the dough out of the chopper and form into a log 8 to 9-inches long on a piece of wax or parchment paper. Wrap the paper around and roll the log smooth. Freeze the dough, or chill for at least 30 minutes.
To bake, preheat the oven to 375°F and line a baking sheet with parchment or a Silpat. Use a sharp knife to slice the chilled or frozen log of dough into 1/3-inch-thick pieces. Place on the baking sheet and bake until the edges are just beginning to brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks. Store cooled cookies in an airtight container.
(I cut my cookies into the shape of tea bags – see below – and then half dipped them in white chocolate, adding some simple sugar sprinkles, which just raised the sweetness of the cookies a little.)
Give em a go, you’re welcome!
Lex xx
Lexisms 